It's a huge event every year for FUT players, with exciting pack offers, squad-building challenges and special player cardsexpected. Here's what we know so far.

WHAT IS THE FUT BIRTHDAY WEEK?

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FIFA 17

The FUT Birthday week celebrates, as the name suggests, the birthday of FIFA Ultimate Team. FUT first came into existence on March 19, 2009 for FIFA 09, but EA tend to mark the anniversary a little later than that so as not to clash with their St Patrick's Day promotions.

Last yearit included a free pack every day for a week, the FUT Birthday Cup with special rewards (including an exclusive kit) and daily special pack offers.

WHAT PACKS CAN WE EXPECT?

The FUT Birthday week normally means one free pack a day - you just have to redeem it every evening, as they don't carry over. Last year, it started with a 5k gold pack on day one and ended with a 50k rare players pack on day seven, with the packs getting gradually more valuable day by day. The free packs will probably be untradeable.

The pack offersare likely to be rolled out similarly; in 2016, it started with 1.8k premium bronze player packs on the first day and finished with 100k jumbo rare player packs.

WHAT SQUAD-BUILDING CHALLENGESCAN WE EXPECT?

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Marco Reus FIFA 17

This is what most people will be looking forward to, and the area we know least about. There was a lot of hype over the possibility of ateam of the week squad-building challengelast week when some excellent players were strangely shoehorned into the weekly selection despite middling performances(like Kevin De Bruyne after a 1-1 draw with Liverpool) but the FUT Birthday celebration was held back.

One potential squad-building challenge reward could be the return of international player position cards given we're entering the FUT Birthday off an international break, but that's just speculation.

WHAT TOURNAMENTS CAN WE EXPECT?

Probably none. The introduction of FUT Champions and the Weekend League has seen EA pretty much get rid of online tournaments, so we're more likely to see something Birthday-related integrated into that then the usual Birthday Cup.

WILL THE MARKET BE AFFECTED?

It's unlikely to be too extreme, but player prices tend to drop when the most valuable packs and rewards are released and more people have their hands on them. You're better off looking to pick up bargains in the more saturated market and selling at a higher price later than getting rid of your existing cards during this period.